


Any Moment

by BrightWingsAndBroomsticks



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 19:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5837575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightWingsAndBroomsticks/pseuds/BrightWingsAndBroomsticks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few short hours after the Battle of Hogwarts, as the world starts to move back to normal, hope for a lost love starts to creep back in to Ginny's mind. And Harry seems to be thinking about those former sunlit days as well...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Any Moment

Something about the push of the waves seemed more velvet than water on this warm Spring day, with each rippled curl flawless, continuous, rolling into the shore without fail or even pause. Yesterday’s life-altering battle had really changed very little of importance.

She found the moon in the dimming sky, rising to her left in a perfect half. And she couldn’t help but find the irony in this perfection, a bright shining half, missing its twin but persisting. The castle behind her had seen the deaths of Order members and Death Eaters alike, but had taken only one of her brothers, leaving his twin to find a new identity. Pure fate had put Fred in death’s path, and George, his brother, business partner, roommate, second half, was left with only panic and guilty “what ifs.”

Ginny ventured to water’s edge, finding that the lonely chill, which the lake had emitted all year long, had suddenly vanished entirely. She extracted two stones from the ground next to her foot and turned them about in her hands, simply reflecting upon the wispy texture of the clouds, the pathetic third skip of her stone on the velvet lake, and the unspoken “Hello” floating on the wind from across the lawns. She knew he was there, behind her, perhaps trying to think of something to say.

He was more than a presence on the beach to her. He was Harry Potter, a young man so close to her family that her mother often joked about adopting him. He would be feeling the loss of his dear friend Fred today as well, she knew, but likely thanking fate that it had not been Ron instead. And while the youngest two Weasleys didn’t see eye to eye on every matter, Ginny knew she could never repay Ron for bringing the wonder that was his best friend Harry into her life.

“So you’re back,” she offered, hoping to help him with his clear state of nerves. She had just lost a brother and he a close friend, so the melodrama of an uncertain, unspoken love seemed almost silly in comparison.

An exhale of breath was his only reply as she freed the second stone from the safety of the shore. It skipped farther than its mate, and she backed up a few steps, removing her toes from the cool water to retreat toward Harry up the lawn.

“Are you alright?” he asked. It was a standard question these days, more a mutual commiseration than an attempt to patronize or condescend. Thus it is with any war, Ginny supposed, no matter how unconventional.

She nodded honestly. She missed her brother already, but she was proud of him, and of her whole family, in a way that no amount of grief could alter. And she nodded mostly to prove it to herself anyway. She needed to be the mainstay for her family, especially for George, who was trying so desperately to cover his panic back in the castle. “You?”

“Sure.” Who could expect to say anything stronger only a day after such a heinous ordeal? He had a strong enough bond to the family that he had a responsibility of strength similar to that of the only daughter; he and Ginny could thus help each other to keep up that strength, once they felt they could communicate properly again.

She sat where she was and watched the water once again. He joined her, and they watched in silence as a bird flew the length of the far bank and came to rest in a broken tree next to the forest.

“Ron’s not though,” he added. Enough time had passed that the comment seemed out of place, but Harry didn’t seem to think she would mind. And she didn’t. “He’s been beating himself up all morning about our being gone so long. And I can’t bring myself to disagree with him, entirely.”

In the first few hours after the battle, Harry and the Order had been overwhelmed by the thanks and celebrations of the wider Wizarding community. Everyone wanted to share in the pure joy that came from Riddle’s ultimate downfall, and even the grieving had been pleased to breathe in the new air of freedom that his death afforded. But it was hard to stay happy without feeling guilty about any time they could have spent with Fred, Remus, Tonks, and countless others over the past year. Time that seemed to have been wasted in fear.

And here Harry was, not an outsider but not quite a family member, trying not to stare at Ginny, who had always been his forbidden hope—his best friend’s inevitably wonderful younger sister. He had always felt more at ease with her presence washing over him, but he could feel nothing but guilt for that today. This was no time for him to be relying on her for comfort. Her family and many of their friends had volunteered their time and effort to stay behind, to help rebuild the castle and tend to the wounded, and he ought to be helping them, not distracting them.

“Ron’ll be fine,” she replied. “He just needs to get it all out for a while and then he can start to live again. That’s been my experience with him anyway.” However, she reflected, this was an experience way too far outside the realm of their understanding to even compare.

He was already looking at her when she turned to him, and he simply nodded, seeming unable to gather any articulate thoughts through the haze of uncertainty clouding in his bright green eyes. There was a pause then, the kind that is welcome in the comfort of a dear companion, especially in the beauty of such an exquisite landscape at the moments of twilight. Neither seemed to know what needed to be said, so they simply passed the time and waited for the impulse.

Harry eventually found it, though whether it was courage or cowardice that brought it out was beyond his level of self-awareness. “I think I owe it to you lot to head out for a few weeks—I mean, they’ll want us all out of the castle soon, and a house guest is the last thing you need right now.”

Ginny couldn’t even begin to hide the swell of panic, the lonely little girl inside her rising up with an almost tearful, “No!” She looked right through that haze in his eyes, intently enough to see the forest behind him. She couldn’t quite articulate the truth of why she needed him to stay—that was too risky. But she was prepared with backup reasoning. “You being around will keep Ron sane, Harry.”

“He’ll have Hermione there,” he protested, trying to read through Ginny’s words.

“But he needs your way of thinking,” she tried. “Hermione can comfort him, but you’ll keep him grounded reality.”

“But I don’t need to be at the Burrow to do that, eating your family’s food, intruding on your mourning…”

“You’re entitled to some mourning too.” She truly believed this, and she was able to regain her composure through the sheer honesty of her words. “You may as well be a member of this family, Harry. Ron loves you like a brother—we all do.” She regretted that last amendment as soon as it was out, but kept right on in hopes he wouldn’t analyze it too much. “And I think George could use a brother more than a visitor right now.”

“I don’t know, we’ll see,” he breathed. She could tell there was something more troubling him, but sensed an end to the discussion for the moment.

She nodded slowly and lay down in the soft grass, trying to soak in what she didn’t know about the man beside her. Stars began to show through the darkening sky as they just lay there, two young people who had been parted before they could define themselves, together in silence. She sighed. The little lovesick girl inside her kept trying to get her to start some sort of epic “I missed you” conversations, but she had no idea what it would cause. She had felt like the feelings might be mutual in those days before his departure, but nothing had come of it. Had she imagined it all? Had she just been a school fling from a carefree moment in his life? These fears were real, but if she kept quiet and it turned out that he had loved her, she could never forgive herself. So she cut her losses, and tried desperately not to sound like a child with her next admission.

“You know,” she began, almost jokingly, “I used to sit there in Griffindor Tower every night and dream up these great stories about what you might be doing out there; solving ancient mysteries, saving beautiful damsels from the Death Eaters, saving our whole world with your bare hands. But Hermione’s stories have made it sound like rather a lot of camping and arguing and waiting. Not that I don’t appreciate the dangers you all faced, but it wasn’t all adventures, to hear her tell it.”

He had heard the question in her statement, and he struggled to keep his hope in check as he contemplated how to proceed. Not only had she been thinking about him, but it appeared she been jealously wondering who else might be thinking of him in far away lands. She had not forgotten him, she had not moved on.

But she was still Ron’s baby sister, and he would never be forgiven if he rushed into something that could so easily end in heartbreak.

“Nope,” he said quickly, “no damsels for me. Just Ron and Hermione’s little lovers’ quarrels, mostly. Though they’d never admit to that.”

“So nothing new?” She couldn’t help but relax a bit as they laughed together again. His answer had been too quick to be meaningless.

After several amused “yeahs” and a pleased little pause, he started to get up. He studied her upon standing, and seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. He offered his hand and said, “We should probably get back. Your family could use your sisterly comfort.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she said, enjoying the brief contact as he helped her up. “Ron’s ‘appreciation’ of my comfort generally leaves something to be desired. And I haven’t the faintest idea what to say to Percy after two years of his insulting pomposity.”

“I’m pretty sure you can handle it, Gin.”

She didn’t stop to search for logic in his freshly cleared eyes, but simply leaned right in and kissed him rather lightly on the lips, lingering long enough to make up for time lost before letting go for discretion’s sake.

Because who gives away how much they love someone on the first kiss?

“Shall we?”

And she took his hand as he led her back toward the castle.

**Author's Note:**

> This story started as a fanfic about 10 years ago. Then it morphed into a non-Harry Potter related short story for a college class, complete with renamed characters, and a transfer across the pond to New Hampshire. If you'd like an idea of how that version was, just replace the Battle of Hogwarts with the 9-11 tragedy, with one twin having been killed in Manhattan while the other was safely across the island. I was pretty happy with that odd alternate version, but this will always be Harry and Ginny to me. So I've translated it back into the Wizarding World for your enjoyment. Hope you like it!


End file.
